It is common practice to provide power to a printed circuit board for an electric product by an arrangement wherein a battery is secured in a compartment integral with, or fixed to, the casing for the product. The battery compartment has terminals which engage opposite ends of the batteries. Wires are connected between the battery terminals and the printed circuit board for powering the electric circuit on the board after a battery is inserted in the compartment. This approach is associated with high labor costs which are incurred in the installation of the battery terminals and in the connection of the wires to the battery terminals and the printed circuit board.
Various approaches have been suggested for lowering the labor cost incurred in providing battery terminals connected to a printed circuit board.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,463 to Parker discloses a battery contact as may best be seen in FIG. 5, having a battery contacting Part 11 and a housing contacting Part 12. The contact No. 8 includes longitudinally extending parts or walls 9 and 10 for being fitted over a side wall 1 of a battery container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,298 to Krenz discloses a battery contact 14 or 16 for solder connection to an aperture 28 of a printed circuit board. Battery contacts 14 and 16 are generally Z-shaped with internal legs 34 for making electrical and resilient mechanical engagement with a terminal of a battery.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,430 to Cairns et al., is directed to a terminal for connecting a lead to a printed circuit board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,430 to Clark discloses a 3-legged connector for solder connection with apertures located on a printed circuit board and which terminates in a spade type connector, or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,634 to Pritulski is directed to an interconnect system for electrically connecting conductors to printed circuit boards. A pair of legs 36, extending from the lower portion of the connector, are insertable within apertures 24 in a printed circuit board and bent after insertion for a secure mounting. A contact 50 extends from one side of the connector. The arm 50 has a contact member 52 and the arm terminates in a pair of spring contacts 54. The contact arm is arranged so as to receive an edge of a printed circuit board, or the like, between the contacts 52 and 54. The upper contact member 54 engages the upper surface of the printed circuit board to hold the board in place while the lower contact member 52 makes an electrical contact with the circuitry on the board to complete the electrical connection between the circuitry strips on the board and wire conductors located within the connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,603 to Leffingwell et al. provides a battery case which is mounted directly on a printed circuit board. Terminal pins are provided which are directly affixed to the cell terminals so as to restrain the cell terminals from movement relative to the base portion of a printed circuit board prior to joining a cover portion to the base portion. The terminal pins project from the case through the base for fixing the case and the storage cell to a printed circuit board and for electrically connecting the storage cell to the circuit of the printed circuit board.
While the above described prior art provides various approaches to the provision of terminals for mounting a terminal bearing electrical device, such as a battery, there is a need for a simple one piece electric terminal which can be mounted on a printed circuit board in a self-aligning position and maintained in that position until soldering can be effected by high production soldering techniques, such as wave soldering.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an electric terminal formed from a single metal strip for use in mounting a terminal bearing electrical device on a printed circuit board.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electric terminal which can be used in pairs without requiring a second mirror image of the terminal to be provided.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an electric terminal which can be positioned on a printed circuit board and which will be self-aligning in a position and retained in the position until soldering can be effected by high speed soldering techniques, such as wave soldering.